Exhibition fight

An exhibition fight is a contact sports non-profit event, usually a boxing fight in which participants fight, normally for three rounds. They may wear large gloves to minimize punch harm or impact on the combatants, headgear, and non-boxing related clothing. Many exhibition fights involve popular current or former world champions, and exhibition bouts are usually carried out for charity purposes or for the public's entertainment. Exhibition fights are usually not listed as having taken place on boxer career records.

In England, such boxers as Jem Mace, Jimmy Wilde and Tommy Farr boxed both official and exhibition bouts at what were called "boxing booths".

In Russia during the early 1890s, aristocrat Mikhail Kister performed at exhibition boxing fights.

Early in the 20th century, boxing exhibitions became popular across the United States. Many times, official fights had to be advertised as exhibitions, due to state laws prohibiting professional boxing. As the century progressed, Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson and others fought exhibition fights. Benny Leonard did an exhibition for the United Drive Rally on May 23, 1923.

Exhibition fights became less common as the 20th century progressed. However, a number of notable ones, many including Muhammad Ali, took place. Ali boxed both well known boxers and celebrities from other walks of life during this period, including Michael Dokes,Antonio Inoki,Gorilla Monsoon,Lyle Alzado,Dave Semenko, and the famous Puerto Rican comedian Jose Miguel Agrelot (with Iris Chacon acting as Agrelot's corner-woman).

About six months after Ali beat him for the world Heavyweight title, George Foreman participated in five exhibition fights in one afternoon: on April 26, 1975, he boxed Jerry Judge, Boone Kirkman, Charley Polite, Terry Daniels and Alonzo Johnson at Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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